Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok, I have a hatchling black rat about 15 inches maybe a bit less. He's had 2 feeds on pinkies(1 every 5 days). I was told that 2 every 5 days was better. So last night(feeding night) I put him in a deli cup with a pinkie(That's the only way he'll eat right now) and he eats it like he did the 2 times before. Listening to what others have told me I put him another pinkie in there. I check back about 2 hours later and he had attempted to eat the other one buthe couldn't hold it down. You could tell that he had swallowed it because it was really slimy. I see that pinkie and the one he ate before laying there with snake stomach juices all over them. He still acted normal and active so I cleaned up the cup and the snake. I let him rest for about an hour and I put him back in the cup with only 1 pinkie. I check back this morning and he had eaten and regurged this one to so that's 3 pinkies wasted. What's the problem? I was thinking that the deli cup was too small for a snake that long and being cramped up made him regurge. Please help me and tell me when I sould try and feed him again. I have never in my 11 years of experience had any of my snakes regurge. Thanks.

First off, never try to feed a snake who has regurged without waiting at least a week (after the first regurge, two weeks if it is the second, and then a vet visit if it is the third) for the stomach acids to regroup. I would strongly recommend that you wait at LEAST ten days this time, since he did actually regurge two times. Second is that some snakes just cannot handle two items at once. Some snakes can, but some cannot. So I would cut it down to only one pinky a week, after waiting the week with no handling and no bothering for the snake to recover from this regurge. When he gets a bigger, than I would go to one small fuzzy a week, and the next step when he is even bigger is one hopper, etc. I have snakes who I would never feed two items to because they will always regurge.

Just my opinion. Hope it helps.
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sue

Normally Rat Snakes are not bad about regurgitating. Pituophis are notorious for it, but not Rat Snakes. I don't really think it's from overfeeding. I agree that you need to wait at least a week before you try to feed him again, though. The most common causes for regurgitating are: (in order most common to least)

1. Temperature either too high or too low.

2. Handling too soon after feeding

3. Too large a food item (I don't think a pinkie would be too large)

4. Disease or parasites.

I'm glad you asked this question because for the past 2 feedings, my girlfriend's snow corn has regurgitated. We fed him 2 pinkies each time and I was going to cut that back to one till he gets bigger.

My albino corn didn't regurgitate for this past feeding (as of when I'm writing this message, 36 hours later) but it did for the one before it. I was going to try to feed mine a second pinkie about 4 days later (so she would be fed every Tuesday and Friday -- I want her to get a bit bigger).

Any sugestions?